Japanese physicists devise a formula to predict how successful a film is likely to be

PARIS (AFP) - Unlikely candidates for box office stardom, a team of Japanese physicists may soon be in high demand with moviemakers after devising a formula to predict how successful a film is likely to be. The team from Tottori University devised a set of mathematical models that measure how much money was spent on advertising before a movie is released, over what period of time, and how much talk the film generated in social media. Using the models, they predicted the popularity of a variety of blockbusters, including the Da Vinci Code, Spider Man 3 and Avatar, which they later compared to actual revenue generated. 'They appeared to match very well, meaning the calculations could provide a fairly good prediction of how successful a movie could be even before it is released,' said a statement from the Institute of Physics, which published the paper in the Journal of Physi...